Wow... it's been a long time...

[blackbrandt]

Hey all,

I was digging through some emails and found a notification from TRF and figured I might as well hop back on here some.

I know it's been a while since I've been on here, life and school has gotten in the way of rockets. After my L3 attempt at LDRS in Maryland, rockets kinda started to take a back burner... and then college came and wow, I've been busy.

I've been involved in a rockoon project but I haven't build a personal rocket in ages. The Nike-Apache I got in some Madcow sale is sitting in the corner of my dorm room still in the box. I keep meaning to get around to building it.


I realized how much I've missed talking with the people on here. Expect to see me around more.



Sorry for the random post, just figured I'd pop my head back in and see what's going on.


Cheers


--bb

 

[Gary Byrum]

Oh Goodie!!! Yer back. Lemme go get my bag of rotten maters.

 

[blackbrandt]

Wait a sec, when did we finally get a "like" system? I remember the posts arguing about whether or not we should implement those....

 

[conman13]

Good too see a familiar face I just got back on the other day and am building a second version of My 38mm md after 4 years of being out.

 

[ThirstyBarbarian]

I like the likes!

If you have no time for rockets at college, you are probably doing it right. Welcome back!

 

[blackbrandt]

I like the likes!

If you have no time for rockets at college, you are probably doing it right. Welcome back!

Thanks Yeah, I changed my major from Mechanical engineering to computer science. I just finished my last MechE class (thermodynamics) and figured out why they call it thermodynamics and not thermolivenamics.

 

[Nathan]

Computer Science, good choice. Only problem is that it changes so fast that by the time you graduate and get a job, half of what you learned will already be obsolete.

Hope to see you at MDRA again some day.

 

[BABAR]

Good to hear from you.

Comp Sci sounds promising.

Pick something you like, you are good at, AND has prospects at graduation for a JOB you will also like and be good at!

 

[blackjack2564]

Howdy BlackBrat...good to see ya back.
All the usual suspects are still here!
I did a bang up build on that Nike -Apache...under the new heading "2 stagers"

 

[Nytrunner]

Ahoy, I was meaning to text you about our meeting this Thursday!

We're planning to launch Saturday just a half hour east (weat her permitting)

 

[blackbrandt]

Ahoy, I was meaning to text you about our meeting this Thursday!

We're planning to launch Saturday just a half hour east (weat her permitting)

Sadly my winter break begins Wednesday night so I'll be back in NC :/

 

[blackbrandt]

Oh, another fun change about me... I grew a beard

 

[MarcoPolo]

Work hard at school now—- you’ll be able to afford lots of cool rocket stuff when you get into a lucrative career! I tell my kids all the time, go to school if you don’t want to have to work as long and hard as “dear old dad”. Remember to have fun along the way.

 

[Nytrunner]

Sadly my winter break begins Wednesday night so I'll be back in NC :/

Boo! Come visit in the spring ya hear?

 

[rharshberger]

Damn they are coming back and getting older.

Welcome back Brant!

 

[OverTheTop]

Welcome back. Hope school is going well for you, because it will help with rockets in the long run .

 

[K'Tesh]

Welcome Back!!! Going for the Shaggy look I see...

Pointy Side Up!!! (in the event you forgot)

 

[Steve Shannon]

Wait a sec, when did we finally get a "like" system? I remember the posts arguing about whether or not we should implement those....

When the forum migrated from vBulletin to Xenforo, the admins enabled the like. I like it.

 

[neil_w]

Computer Science, good choice. Only problem is that it changes so fast that by the time you graduate and get a job, half of what you learned will already be obsolete.

Only half? You're an optimist.

When the forum migrated from vBulletin to Xenforo, the admins enabled the like. I like it.

I'm afraid to like this post for fear of triggering a infinite vortex of "like". So I'll just silently nod my head in agreement.

 

[Bat-mite]

'Sup, dude?

 

[Kallahan11]

Computer Science, good choice. Only problem is that it changes so fast that by the time you graduate and get a job, half of what you learned will already be obsolete.

A lot of people say that but it's really not true. Data structures, algorithms, problem solving, discrete mathematics, object oriented programming and functional programming haven't changed that much in a while. What changes are languages, development environments, and developmental ideologies (waterfall, SCRUM, Agile what ever BS is next). Don't go into Computer Science to learn a programming language, go into it to learn computer science / software development.

 

[smugglervt]

Oh, another fun change about me... I grew a beard

Welcome back, I guess you can call that a beard.

 

[OverTheTop]

Don't go into Computer Science to learn a programming language, go into it to learn computer science / software development.

Totally true. Most of the languages are remarkably similar. I have only done about 10 high-level and a similar number of assembler languages over the years. With very few exceptions they are similar in form, but with different syntax. Data processing, software development and real computer science will be a good choice in the current environment IMHO, as that is where the advancements are made usually.

Putting things in context in a temporal sense: I did computer science for year 12 back in 1980. We were using a DEC PDP-8 computer with 32k words of RAM, and we had access to a mainframe with dumb terminals and punch cards. That technology is quickly surpassed, but the learning of doing Fourier transforms on images and being able to do finite element analysis and other techniques is still valid today. You might even get to do some programming on a quantum computer during your career .

Enjoy!

 

[Mushtang]

Thanks Yeah, I changed my major from Mechanical engineering to computer science. I just finished my last MechE class (thermodynamics) and figured out why they call it thermodynamics and not thermolivenamics.

When I was in Engineering school and taking Thermo, we called it Thermogodamics. Same reasons I'm sure.

 

[Gary Byrum]

Hey all,
Sorry for the random post, just figured I'd pop my head back in and see what's going on.
Cheers --bb

I wasn't trying to give you a hard time buddy....uh....er...I guess maybe I was...hahaha
Anyhoo, good to see you. Hope to see you in Camden at some point. Now that Crazy Jim took a seat with the "in charge" group, ought to be somewhat interesting.

 

[crossfire]

Welcome back Matt
I think i sold you something that Jim picked up for you at MWP.

 

[dhbarr]

Take assembly and lisp, then marvel at how many of your peers don't actually know how to computer. Good luck, have fun, and trust Knuth.

 

[Nathan]

Take assembly and lisp, then marvel at how many of your peers don't actually know how to computer. Good luck, have fun, and trust Knuth.

+1
I don't know how much demand there is for Assembly programming anymore but that's what I used to do and I enjoyed it.

And that stuff they teach you in school about documentation, ignore that. Real programmers don't write documentation; if it was hard to develop then it should be hard to understand.

 

[jlabrasca]

+1
...if it was hard to develop then it should be hard to understand.

Hear hear! This is why real jocks and wizards favor APL. The original write-only language. Impossible to parse except by execution.

Of course, I once coded a spreadsheet program in smalltalk, and an email client in Algol. Uphill. In the snow. Both ways. In those days, we lived on nothing but Jolt and Fritos, and punched the code onto paper tape with our teeth.

 

[OverTheTop]

Hear hear! This is why real jocks and wizards favor APL. The original write-only language. Impossible to parse except by execution.

Is it great minds think alike, or fools seldom differ .

I love a couple of quirks of APL. Firstly, 0/0=1 (not "error"), and secondly there is no operator precedence (ie do times and divide before add and subtract). All operators have the same precedence and everything works from right to left. So you don't need to use any brackets if you are a little clever!

As you said, write only. If you wanted to do a fourier regression on data it was one line of code. There would be 10-20 lines of comments with it if you had to understand it later .